Gardening

It’s officially spring! While it warms up outside, we are preparing to plant in the kitchen garden at Pennsbury. But nothing will be ready to eat immediately. Until early April, colonial households would still be living off of their winter stores of root vegetables, dried fruits, pickled vegetables and salted meats. Nutrition would have been very poor at this time of year, and any signs of early greens would have been exciting!

These shoots of asparagus came up from last year’s plants. We’ll wait until they get a little bigger and then cut off some of the shoots to eat.

Flower Power

How did colonial gardeners know when to plant things? Without modern thermometers and weather forecasts, colonial gardeners used something called phenology. This is when you observe patterns in nature and plant your seeds based on what is happening outside. For example, when gardeners saw that daffodils were blooming they knew that it was time to plant peas. Look around your neighborhood at home and see if you can find blooming daffodils. That means you are ready to plant too! Here are a few other early blooming plants to look for: Forsythia, Cherry tree, Star Magnolia tree, Hyacinth bulbs

Poop Power

Without electricity to heat a greenhouse, colonial gardeners used something called a hotbed. The hotbed (pictured below on the left) is in a brick box that sits in a hole in the ground. The box has a frame on top that holds up a row of windows to help keep heat in. The box was dug out about two feet deep and filled in with fresh horse manure and straw, and then topped with good soil. The horse manure breaks down like compost and produces heat which acts like a natural greenhouse. The picture below on the right shows a thermometer that reads 80 degrees. The soil has been 80 degrees since mid February and we’ve been able to grow seeds in the hotbed much earlier than if we had planted directly in the garden.

Here at Pennsbury Manor, we have hotbeds set up to demonstrate what colonial gardeners did in the 17th Century to keep seedlings warm, but we also have a modern greenhouse. It is heated with an electric heater and stays between 65 and 80 degrees. This means we can grow lots of plants inside when it is still too cold outside.

Spring Has Sprung

Early spring is a good time to spruce up the garden by raking up leaves from last fall, picking up branches that broke during winter storms, and fixing fences to protect the garden from pests. This picture shows our big fence in the background that keeps deer out, and the first side of a smaller fence that we are building. The smaller fence is called a waddle fence that will help to keep out smaller animals like rabbits and groundhogs that can burrow under the big fence. A waddle fence is made from sticks that are woven together like a basket.

What kind of animal do you think made this hole under our garden shed?

a)deer

b)squirrel

c)groundhog

d)goose

It might look like the plants outside are still dormant and not much is happening yet, but here at Pennsbury there are lots of signs of spring. We encourage you to go outside in your neighborhood and look around. Spring is here!

Vocabulary: These words might be new to you. Look them up!

1. Nutrition –

2. Forecast –

3. Manure –

4. Compost –

5. Dormant –

Pick one outside challenge:

1. Build your own wattle fence in your backyard or park. (Google "wattle fence" for ideas or help if needed).

2. Find and smell three plants that grow in your neighborhood.